Saturday, December 27, 2008

Must we share in every random thought of Thomas Friedman? He has become a national scold, and his constant criticisms have become boring and predictable.

Yep, that's pretty much the long and short of it. I actually thought Thomas Friedman was one of the better columnists at Pravda-on-Hudson once upon a time, but his scolding and lecturing tone got to the point that I just couldn't take any more of it. He thinks he knows everything and isn't afraid to shout it from the rooftops. As for Friedman's adoration of so many things Chinese including the infrastructure, for some strange reason I am reminded of the old wives' tale about the dictators making the trains run on time. I am not sure exactly why, though. It may be things like what happened in Tiananmen Square, or the Chinese government's censorship of the Web, the one-child policy, just general stuff like that. And it deserves to be asked how much of China's money's going to things like debt service and entitlement spending. But of course you'll never see Thomas Friedman asking questions like that. All he'll do is just bitch and moan about how we're supposedly doing things wrong in America.

Unorganized Militia Propaganda Corps

About Me

I am a very opinionated guy, Texan and quite proud of it. I lean toward the right politically but have a few libertarian tendencies that my conservative brothers and sisters might not agree with. I like guns, old country music and a lot of other things.

Essential Reading

False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils, except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Can it be supposed that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity, the most important of the code, will respect the less important and arbitrary ones, which can be violated with ease and impunity, and which, if strictly obeyed, would put an end to personal liberty -- so dear to men, so dear to the enlightened legislator -- and subject innocent persons to all the vexations that the guilty alone ought to suffer? Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.-- Cesare Beccaria, in On Crimes And Punishments, later quoted by Thomas Jefferson

Echo

The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.-- Alexander Hamilton